The disappointment of being left out of Europe's victorious Ryder Cup team in Wales has faded but it will not be forgotten by Paul Casey, whose fourth place after two rounds of Dubai World Championship yesterday suggested here was a man out to prove a point.

"If I have been knocked down or told by someone I can't do something, I have always liked to fight back and prove that person wrong," said the Englishman after posting a five-under-par 67.

Colin Montgomerie, take note. After all, it was the Scot in his capacity as Europe's Ryder Cup captain who took the controversial decision to omit Casey from his team at Celtic Manor, despite the Englishman's top-10 world ranking and run of form significantly better than at least one of the three players selected.

Europe's subsequent victory renders all debate moot in the eyes of many, even Casey, although before moving on he takes issue with the widespread assumption that his alleged unpopularity among his peers cost him a place. "If you are talking about not being popular in the team room I don't believe that for a second. And if you're talking about popularity in general that shouldn't count. It's about how many points you put on the board,'' he said.

Only Montgomerie can provide the definitive explanation of what happened but three months after the event Casey, who shares a management company with the Scot, has yet to receive the courtesy of the promised explanation for his omission. "I still haven't spoken to him [Montgomerie], though I've heard there is a voicemail somewhere. We were at the same pro-am recently and he sent me a text. He knew where to find me,'' he said.

The Englishman, addressing a clearly painful subject for the first time, said he learned he had not been selected for Celtic Manor while mid-round at a PGA Tour event in New Jersey. Afterwards, he was moved to tears with disappointment. "Can you imagine what it was like with the press conference happening while we're on the golf course and finding out that way. I felt like shaking Paddy's [Harrington, his playing partner that afternoon] hand and walking in. [The way the team is announced] has got to change, it's simply unfair, it was unfair on all of us."

Suffice to say, changes are afoot in the timing of the Ryder Cup selection process in time for the 2012 contest in Chicago – small consolation for Casey, of course, although he is intent on removing any doubts about his place on the team. "I aim to win enough points and play my way in,'' he said.

He has the talent to realise that ambition, though his difficulty is that many others do too. The evidence of that was clear last night on a leaderboard that had Ross Fisher and Ian Poulter at its head, on nine under par, with Lee Westwood, on eight under, and then Casey and Martin Kaymer, both on seven under. Each of them is eligible for the European team, and so are the likes of Francesco Molinari and Alvaro Quiros, both inside the top 10.

All are elite players, and there are plenty more where they came from in what is truly a golden era for European golf – an era which has an Englishman, in Westwood, as the world's No1 player, and Kaymer as his closest challenger.

The German came into this tournament needing to finish ahead of Graeme McDowell to win the season-long Race to Dubai. With an eight-shot advantage over the Irishman and 36 holes left he seems certain to do that, leaving him to concentrate on another gilded ambition.

A victory tomorrow and anything other than a second-place finish from Westwood would see the German assume the title of world No1 – not a bad subplot for the final event of the European Tour season. "I think the main thing is trying to win Dubai World Championship,'' said always phlegmatic Englishman. "And let's just see where everything else falls."